Amazon Won't Host Wikileaks... But Will Sell The Leaked Cables For Your Kindle?

from the choices dept

This is making the rounds on Twitter, but cc was the first to submit it here. When Amazon kicked Wikileaks off of their S3 hosting service, we noted how it had (just weeks earlier) tried to defend a pro-pedophilia book by stating:

"Amazon believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable."

While Amazon did cave and pull that book eventually, some suggested that perhaps this just meant that Amazon would be fine with Wikileaks if it was being sold in book form. And, apparently, someone is testing that theory, and so far it's working. You can apparently buy the Wikileaks leaked State Department cables on Amazon for your kindle, if you're so inclined. Of course, since they're available (at an ever increasing number of mirror sites) for free, there's no reason to -- but as a way of showing Amazon's hypocrisy, well, that's just priceless.

Update: Amazon's "explanation" is that the book also contains commentary. Um. What? So if the Wikileaks website also contained commentary (which I believe it does), it would be okay?